Angel of Twilight
by Marcus S. Lazarus
Summary: -Sequel to 'Angels with Bloody Teeth'- A series of interludes in 'Twilight' where Bella learns about Alice Cullen's non-Cullen brother.
1. Cullen Family History

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you know the drill

Feedback: Feel free

AN: This is a short sequel to my story 'Angels with Bloody Teeth', exploring the scene where Edward tells Bella about the pasts of the Cullen family for the first time; this opening chapter is just intended to explore how Edward's story to Bella about the past of the other Cullens differs from the canon version, with the result that most of it comes from _Twilight _itself, but I'll include a more original scene in the next chapter

Angel of Twilight

"Are you ever going to tell me how old you are?" I asked, tentative, not wanting to upset his more buoyant humour; after so long dealing with him brooding, it was nice to see him more relaxed.

"Does it matter much?" His smile, to my relief, remained unclouded.

"No, but I still wonder..." I grimaced. "There's nothing like an unsolved mystery to keep you up at night."

"I wonder if it will upset you," he reflected to himself. He gazed into the sun; the minutes passed.

"Try me," I finally said, when the silence passed the point where it was just awkward.

He sighed, and then looked into my eyes, seeming to forget the road completely for a time. Whatever he saw there must have encouraged him. He looked into the sun- the light of the setting orb glittered off his skin in ruby-tinged sparkles- and spoke.

"I was born in Chicago in 1901." He paused and glanced at me from the corner of his eyes. My face was carefully unsurprised, patient for the rest. He smiled a tiny smile and continued. "Carlisle found me in a hospital in the summer of 1918. I was seventeen, and dying of the Spanish influenza."

He heard my intake of breath, though it was barely audible to my own ears. He looked down into my eyes again.

"I don't remember it well; it was a very long time ago, and human memories fade." He was lost in his thoughts for a short time before he went on. "I do remember how it felt, when Carlisle saved me. It's not an easy thing, not something you could forget."

"Your parents?" I asked.

"They had already died from the disease. I was alone. That was why he chose me. In all the chaos of the epidemic, no one would ever realize I was gone."

"How did he... save you?" I said after a moment's thought; it was potentially awkward, but if we were talking about vampires, it was a natural question to ask.

A few seconds passed before he answered. He seemed to choose his words carefully.

"It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us... I don't think you could find his equal throughout all of history." He paused. "For me, it was merely very, very painful."

I could tell from the set of his lips, he would say no more on this subject. I suppressed my curiosity, though it was far from idle. There were many things I needed to think through on this particular issue, things that were only beginning to occur to me. No doubt his quick mind had already comprehended every aspect that eluded me.

His soft voice interrupted my thoughts. "He acted from loneliness. That's usually the reason behind the choice. I was the first in Carlisle's family, though he found Esme soon after. She fell from a cliff. They brought her straight to the hospital morgue, though, somehow, her heart was still beating."

"So you must be dying, then, to become..." We never said the word, and I couldn't frame it now.

"No, that's just Carlisle. He would never do that to someone who had another choice." The respect in his voice was profound whenever he spoke of his father figure. "It is easier he says, though," he continued, "if the blood is weak." He looked at the now-dark road, and I could feel the subject closing again.

"And Emmett and Rosalie?"

"Carlisle brought Rosalie to our family next. I didn't realize till much later that he was hoping she would be to me what Esme was to him- he was careful with his thoughts around me." He rolled his eyes. "But she was never more than a sister. It was only two years later that she found Emmett. She was hunting- we were in Appalachia at the time- and found a bear about to finish him off. She carried him back to Carlisle, more than a hundred miles, afraid she wouldn't be able to do it herself. I'm only beginning to guess how difficult that journey was for her." He threw a pointed glance in my direction, and raised our hands, still folded together, to brush my cheek with the back of his hand.

"But she made it," I encouraged, looking away from the unbearable beauty of his eyes.

"Yes," he murmured. "She saw something in his face that made her strong enough. And they've been together ever since. Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place. Forks seemed perfect, so we all enrolled in high school." He laughed. "I suppose we'll have to go to their wedding in a few years, again."

"Alice and Jasper?"

"Alice and Jasper are two very rare creatures. In Jasper's case, he developed a conscience, as we refer to it, with no outside guidance. Jasper belonged to another... family, a very different kind of family. He became depressed, and he wandered on his own. Alice found him. Like me, she has certain gifts above and beyond the norm for our kind."

"Really?" I interrupted, fascinated. "But you said you were the only one who could hear people's thoughts."

"That's true. She knows other things. She sees things- things that might happen, things that are coming. But it's very subjective. The future isn't set in stone. Things change."

His jaw set when he said that, and his eyes darted to my face and away so quickly that I wasn't sure if I only imagined it.

"What kinds of things does she see?"

"She saw Jasper and knew that he was looking for her before he knew it himself. She saw Carlisle and our family, and they came together to find us. She's most sensitive to non-humans, although she insists that part of that comes from training she took in her early years. She always sees, for example, when another group of our kind is coming near... and any threat they may pose."

"Are there a lot of... your kind?" I was surprised. How many of them could walk among us undetected?

"Not many of _our_kind," Edward said (It was only later that I'd realise the implications of his chosen emphasis). "But most won't settle in any one place. Only those like us, who've given up hunting you people," a sly glance in my direction, "can live together with humans for any length of time without attracting immediate attention. We've only found one other family like ours, in a small village in Alaska. We lived together for a time, but there were so many of us that we became too noticeable. Those of us who live... differently tend to band together."

"And the others?"

"Nomads, for the most part. We've all lived that way at times. It gets tedious, like anything else. But we run across the others now and then, because most of us prefer the North."

"Why is that?"

We were parked in front of my house now, and he'd turned off the truck. It was very quiet and dark; there was no moon. The porch light was off so I knew my father wasn't home yet.

"Did you have your eyes open this afternoon?" he teased. "Do you think I could walk down the street in the sunlight without causing traffic accidents? There's a reason why we chose the Olympic Peninsula, one of the most sunless places in the world. It's nice to be able to go outside in the day. You wouldn't believe how tired you can get of nighttime in eighty-odd years."

"So that's where the legends came from?"

"Partly," Edward admitted.

"And Alice came from another family, like Jasper?"

"Yes and no," Edward replied. "Alice has no memory of her human life, and she has no idea who created her, but she was found and trained in her diet by... another."

"Another what?" I asked.

"Another kind of vampire," Edward clarified. "He was not like us- he has certain strengths and weaknesses that we don't, as well as his kind being more naturally... brutal... than we are-, but he had a unique compassion among his kind that prompted him to take Alice in when he found her, discarded on a hilltop for reasons that she has never found out; it was sheer luck that she was discovered when she was and by whom. He taught her how to control her visions and resist her hunger for human blood, but they parted company when her visions of Jasper prompted her to seek him out, and he went his separate way from her after she met Jasper; we only even learned that he existed a few years ago when Alice had a vision of him in danger that required our help."

There was so much to think through, and so much I still wanted to ask (Particularly about Alice's mysterious 'other brother', who was apparently a different kind of vampire altogether). But, to my great embarrassment, my stomach growled. I'd been so intrigued, I hadn't even noticed I was hungry, until I suddenly found myself ravenous.

"I'm sorry," Edward said, looking apologetically at me. "I'm keeping you from dinner."

"I'm fine, really."

"I've never spent much time around anyone who eats food. I forget."

"I want to stay with you." It was easier to say in the darkness, knowing as I spoke how my voice would betray me, my hopeless addiction to him...

* * *

AN 2: Short, I know, but I wanted to establish the essential points now; the next chapter will include an original 'off-screen' moment where Alice provides Bella with more information about her history with Angel.


	2. The Tale of Alice's Brother

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you know the drill

Feedback: Feel free

AN: As promised, a more original scene this time around; this is set while Alice was preparing Bella's make-up for the prom at the end of 'Twilight', so everything with James has taken place

Angel of Twilight

"Angel."

"Excuse me?" I asked, turning to look at Alice in confusion; I'd been so busy tolerating her efforts to do my hair and other cosmetics that I'd almost forgotten that there were still things I wanted to ask her, but she was apparently anticipating my question even if I hadn't been planning on asking it right now.

"The vampire who... well, saying that he 'trained' me is probably the best term," Alice explained, as she looked at me with a slight smile. "His name was Angel... with his soul, anyway."

"His soul?" I repeated in confusion; I knew Edward's own theories about his spiritual status well enough, but I had to admit that I'd never really given that issue that much thought, and to hear Alice talking about it all of a sudden was somewhat unexpected.

"Edward told you that I was trained to resist my thirst by another breed of vampire, correct?" Alice asked, at least waiting for me to nod before she continued speaking. "Angel's breed of vampire is fundamentally a bit less... well, 'durable' than us is the best way of describing it; they're generally the subjects of most of the vampire myths you hear about us being vulnerable to crucifixes, sunlight and stakes, although I have been reliably informed that Dracula's the only one who can do that 'turn into a bat' thing-"

"_Dracula's _real?" I said, looking incredulously at Alice.

"Yes, but he's a bit of a poser as far as other vampires are concerned; all flash and gypsy magic, to say nothing of those vampires being naturally annoyed at the fact that his story went public and suddenly everybody knows how to kill most of them..." Alice said, shrugging slightly before she smiled and looked at me. "Anyway, Angel's breed of vampire are particularly distinctive in that, when they're turned- which for their breed involves the human's blood being drunk before they are fed some of the vampire's blood; no venom involved there-, their body is inhabited by a demon that essentially possesses their corpse; the demon possesses the memories and basic personality of the original, but it's all twisted and corrupted into a sadist dedicated to destroying or corrupting everything that the human valued in life, with pious girls becoming warped flirts or shy bookworms becoming brutal dominatrixes... although, naturally, vampires created from evil humans are just as psychotic as they were when they were human."

"And Edward thinks you're like _that_?" I asked, staring at Alice while trying to conceal my frustrated apprehension at Edward's warped image of himself; the idea that Edward thought he was anything like the vampires that Alice had just described to me was... _wrong_.

"Edward just thinks that our souls were lost after our turning rather than that something replaced them; as far as he's concerned, we're just walking around without the soul or anything like that animating us," Alice explained. "I've tried to object, but... well, the spiritual side of our conditions was never a major factor back when I knew Angel, and I don't know enough about what we were all like pre-vampire to present him with a compelling argument that Carlisle hasn't already tried at some point."

"So," I asked after a brief moment of silence, trying to divert the conversation to focus on a potentially more upbeat and straightforward topic than the spiritual status of vampires, "what made... Angel... different?"

"Angel was cursed with his soul over a century ago- about two decades before I met him, if you want to be specific-; his vampire demon killed the favourite daughter of a clan of gypsies, so they cursed him with his soul so that he would feel the guilt and grief of everything he'd done when he was soulless," Alice explained, her expression lacking its usual smile as she told the story. "He spent the first few months trying to be the killer he had been so that he could stay with Darla because he didn't know what else he could do with himself, but he left her in China during the Boxer Rebellion- Darla had disdained religion even when she was alive, apparently- because he realised that he couldn't be what she wanted him to be, and he's been on his own ever since... well, except for when he found me, of course."

"He really just _found _you?" I asked curiously.

"Angel happened to be in the area when I was left lying around after I was turned- apparently by that other vampire James mentioned, now that we know something about that- and he was able to help me adjust to what I'd become; gradually helped me become used to the scent of human blood, kept me from attacking humans, that kind of thing," Alice confirmed. "It wasn't an easy time during my newborn phase- trust me, those urges are _very _difficult to resist-, but we eventually got through that stage and travelled around America for the next few decades- remind me to tell you more about the time we were recruited to help the war effort later-, but... well, we went our separate ways in 1952 for reasons that are Angel's to explain."

"Oh," I said, when Alice's silence made it clear that she wasn't going to tell me anything more about that particular topic.

"We met up again a couple of years ago, of course- long story short, Angel was engaging in a massive last stand against a veritable army of demons and I had a vision that made it clear he'd need my help to deal with the problem-, but he tends to work on his own these days," Alice explained. "He's all about saving people from the things that go bump in the night- staking his type of vampire, stopping demons from feeding on humans in other ways than drinking blood, things like that-, and we're... well, tend to scare off most things if we set up 'shop' in particular areas, and we'd attract too much attention if we were constantly moving around."

"You... scare things off?" I repeated in confusion (I was trying not to think about what Alice had just said about Angel fighting an army of demons when they'd met again; somehow, thinking about demons existing to the extent that they had an army of their own when my last encounter with a renegade vampire had resulted in a broken leg was something I just wasn't ready to think about in depth right now...).

"From what we've worked out, Angel and I think that my breed of vampire is more directly tied to the Old Ones- a powerful race of demons who include the original vampire-, and, as a result, when we relocate to particular areas, most pre-existing supernatural creatures inhabiting the territory just... want to run away," Alice explained, shrugging slightly. "It's not as noticeable when it's only one or two of us- I certainly ran into more than a few demons when I was with Angel-, but in numbers like our family, most things in the supernatural hierarchy just prefer to run away when we come to the local area rather than stay around and fight us."

"You're the thing that freaks out the things that go bump in the night?" I said, smiling slightly uncertainly at her; having just accepted that vampires were real a matter of hours ago, the idea that there were _more _creatures out there that we didn't know about was something I wasn't entirely sure about pondering in greater detail...

"Essentially, yes," Alice replied with a smile. "I stay in touch with Angel so that we know if there's anything major that could require our help, but spending too much time with him would just drive away what he has to fight to somewhere where he couldn't confront it; as it stands, all I can do is have faith that my brother can deal with whatever the world has to throw at him when I'm not around and be there for him when I need him."

If I'd heard Alice make a statement like that before now, I would have asked her which brother she was talking about, but looking at the pride and affection she had on her face whenever she talked about Angel, I already knew which brother she was referring to.

He might have been a completely different species of vampire to her, and they apparently hadn't seen each other for years, but it was easy to see that, as far as Alice was concerned, Angel was her brother before he was anything else; even if she cared for Edward and Emmett as her other brothers, something in the way she spoke about Angel made it clear that she considered him in a class of his own.

"Anyway," Alice said, her reflective mood fading as she smiled at me, "we'd better keep on moving; we've still got a lot to do and you still have to get your dress!"

I fought back the urge to groan as Alice returned her mind to the original reason she'd dragged me into this room in the first place; I didn't even know why she was so keen for me to dress up all of a sudden, but the convenient distraction of Angel's story was obviously over for the moment as far as she was concerned.

Still, a part of me had to admit that I was almost grateful for it; with my mind still reeling somewhat from my near-death experience at James's hands, I just wasn't _ready _to think about what other supernatural creatures were active in the world right now...

* * *

AN 2: I'm thinking of doing one last chapter in this story involving Angel coming to Forks to meet Bella, but after that I have no immediate thoughts on how to take this story further; does anyone have anything they'd like to suggest?


	3. The Eighth Cullen

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise; you know the drill

Feedback: Feel free

AN: The final part of this series for the foreseeable future; set a few weeks after the last chapter, this chapter sees Bella meeting the last member of the Cullen family (Even if he's more of a distant relative with his only direct connection to them being through Alice), and I hope it meets with our approval (Working out how these two would interact was _not _easy, but I think I came up with something interesting)

Angel of Twilight

With my leg virtually healed from James's attack and the rest of the Cullens out hunting, I was taking advantage of the opportunity to get on with some of my homework; my teachers had made allowances for me being off school due to my damaged leg, but that didn't mean that I didn't feel obligated to keep up.

However, as much as I was resolved to catch up with my work, there were also other matters occupying my mind. As much as Edward and I had promised to let love be enough, I still wasn't sure where we were going to go from here; with Edward's refusal to turn me fully established, I was reluctant to pressure him regarding that issue any more when things were relatively comfortable as they were, and it wasn't like there was any _immediate _need for me to turn yet...

Besides, after everything Alice had told me about her 'other brother'- I was still unsure whether I should think of Angel as another Cullen considering that his only real tie to them was Alice before she'd met the rest of them-, I was starting to realise that there was a lot more to this world that I was plan to enter than what I'd known about originally.

If I was going to become a vampire, I wanted to try and find out more about the world I'd be joining beyond the immediate world of the vampires I'd be becoming part of; the only question was how to find out more about that underground society without the Cullens knowing and letting it slip to Edward. I could maybe look for information in Carlisle's books- he had to have _something _about demons in there for the sake of reference even if he'd never use the information-, but given how well they could smell they'd probably detect that I was in there, and Carlisle would certainly notice that something was missing no matter what I tried to do to cover up my presence...

The sound of something knocking on the door distracted me from my thoughts. For a moment, I worried that something was looking for me to finish what James started- aside from myself, nobody _visited _the Cullens-, but I pushed that thought aside; anything that wanted me dead would have just crashed into the house rather than knocking on the door, which made this turn of events strange but unlikely to be life-threatening.

With that in mind, I got up from the kitchen table and headed off to open the door, where I found myself looking at a tall man, dressed in a long dark leather coat, a dark blue shirt and dark trousers, with pale skin and dark hair, an old-fashioned car in the driveway behind him that seemed somehow out-of-place amid the Cullens' more modern cars. For a moment, looking at him, I was reminded of Edward- their facial structures were remarkably similar-, but I dismissed that thought almost as soon as it had occurred to me; this man _couldn't _be a relative of Edward's...

"Hello," the tall man said, smiling politely at me. "I'm Angel; you're Bella, right?"

"Yeah..." I said, nodding briefly at him before I processed what he said and his identity came to me immediately, prompting me to smile at him in realisation. "_You're _Angel? Alice's brother?"

"I like to think of myself as such," Angel replied, nodding politely at me as he shook my hand with a smile of his own. "I've heard a bit about you from Alice; she mentioned that you were going to be here on your own at this kind of time- you know how she is; very accurate in her predictions when she shares them-, and I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to come and visit."

"Well... come in," I said, opening the door wider to allow Angel in, heading for the kitchen before I realised that I was dealing with a man who was another kind of vampire rather than just another human. "Uh... do you-?"

"I can eat like humans do; it just doesn't really taste the same to me as it might to you," Angel said, smiling slightly at me. "But I'd be fine with a drink anyway."

Glancing in the fridge, I pulled out a beer- I wondered at the Cullens' decision to purchase that, but I supposed that anyone wondering would just assume that Carlisle appreciated a drink after a particularly hard day at the hospital; I certainly knew that Charlie felt that way if there'd been a particularly hard day at work- and handed it to Angel, who nonchalantly opened it with his bare hands before taking a sip.

"So..." I began, looking uncertainly at him; even after everthing else I'd heard about Angel, I'd assumed that I'd have more warning when the time came for us to meet. "From what Alice told me, you're... a different kind of vampire to the Cullens?"

"Very different," Angel said, looking at me for a moment before he took another sip of his drink. "As Alice told you, I burn in the sunlight, holy artefacts hurt me, and my kind typically don't have a human conscience; the only reason I differ from the others is that I was cursed with my soul over a century ago."

"Yeah, Alice... mentioned that part," I said, nodding slightly at Angel before I took a deep breath and decided to ask the most obvious question prompted by that bit of information. "So... magic's real?"

"It's complicated to explain how it works in terms anyone would understand, and dangerous to use if you try to cast something without the proper experience, but... yeah, it's real," Angel said, nodding at me with a smile. "Just don't ask me to tell you any of the finer details about how it works; my experience with magic typically focused on the basics based on what I might need to deal with on my own- a few exorcisms for possessions or hauntings, that kind of thing-, and I rely on my friends for the more complicated rituals that we might need in a situation."

"Yeah, Alice mentioned that you had a... team... these days?" I said, suddenly uncertain what kind of term was appropriate for a group in Angel's line of work; the Cullens might consider themselves family even without any biological connection, but considering that Angel apparently spent his time fighting demons where the Cullens lived in what I thought of as the 'real' world...

"I like to consider them my family," Angel said, smiling slightly at me as though he'd guessed what I was thinking, leaving me feeling suddenly ashamed at the assumption that Angel couldn't have a family just because his daily activities focused on fighting things. "Alice was my first sister, of course, but then I started working with a group of demon-hunters in this small town called Sunnydale- don't bother looking for it on a map; it was destroyed a few years ago-, and went on to form my own team in Los Angeles when... circumstances meant that I had to move on."

"So... you save lives?" I said, looking at Angel with a slight smile, hoping that my manner would detract from the potential sting of what I was about to say to him; this was going to be an awkward topic, but I really did want to know. "I mean, from what Alice said, you were cursed with your soul for what you did without it, and then you-"

"If you're thinking it was a quick switch from villain to hero, you're wrong," Angel interjected, looking grimly at me. "The thing you need to realise, Bella, is that having a soul gave me the ability to make moral decisions again, but that didn't mean I'd make the right ones automatically; there are still human serial killers in the world, and I think we can all agree that _they _have souls. I couldn't be the vampire I was after I got my soul back, but that didn't mean that I'd find it easy to reject over a century of hunting instinct just because I didn't really feel like it any more; I spent some time hunting and drinking human criminals just because I wanted to stay with my original vampire 'family' even if they were all killers, but that all fell apart when I had to make a choice and realised that I didn't have it in me to kill humans like I used to."

"Oh," I said, looking uncertainly at him.

The man before me had _killed _people...

Then I remembered Edward's story about how he had killed humans for a time when he was 'rebelling' against Carlisle's attempt to 'curb his diet', and immediately re-evaluated my original thoughts if I could forgive Edward for killing humans, I had to forgive Angel, or it would just be hypocritical.

Besides, anyone who would help Alice stay _off _human blood for no other reason than that he wanted to help her couldn't be that bad, right? We all made mistakes and poor decisions, but that didn't mean that I could just condemn him for killing criminals where I'd forgiven Edward for the same crime.

I might loved Edward where Angel was just a new acquaintance or a friend of a friend, but so long as he wasn't killing people _now_, surely he deserved a chance to be forgiven just as everyone had forgiven Edward?

"So... now you fight demons on a regular basis?" I asked, turning the conversation back to a more positive topic.

"Demons, vampires, monsters, the occasional human with knowledge of the supernatural; as circumstances demand, you know," Angel replied with a smile. "It took a while to work it all out, of course- started out being about redemption, then it was about just beating up the other guy-, but, eventually, you realise what's really important."

"Which is?" I asked.

"Helping people," Angel said firmly. "Carlisle does what he can as a doctor to heal, and I do what I can as a warrior to protect; we may take a different approach, but each of us has essentially the same mission, helping to show the world what it can be, so that other people realise how to get to that point."

I'd never thought of it that way, but now that I heard it, it was suddenly the most profound statement I'd ever heard in my life.

I'd never given that much thought to world affairs- I knew that we had problems as a society, but I'd never felt like global affairs were something I could specifically contribute to, so I hadn't worried about it-, but sitting there, hearing Angel explain his reasons for fighting for a world that would never even know he existed, against monsters that he probably had more in common with than the people he helped...

"Talking of you helping people..." I asked, looking at him with a reassuring smile, to show him that I was comfortable with the topic we were about to discuss, "did you really once fight off an _army _of demons?"

"I started the fight, yeah, but it's thanks to the Cullens that my friends made it through that particular confrontation," Angel clarified, smiling slightly at me. "My team varied over the years- not counting this period where I was fighting with another group of demon-hunters as one of the gang before I recognised that I had to... make my own way-, but we all brought our own areas of expertise to the effort. At its largest, my team consisted of myself, a woman who had visions of people in trouble, a demonology expert, a man who'd been hunting vampires since he was a child, a physics expert who'd spent five years in another dimension, and a demon who could see peoples' destinies when they sang-"

"You worked with a _demon_?" I asked, realising even as I said it how stupid that statement was; he was a vampire himself, so it wasn't like it was impossible to assume that not all demons were interested in destroying humanity.

"His name was Lorne, and he was really a fairly peaceful guy," Angel said, looking at me a suddenly more pointed stare. "Just like with your breed of vampire, 'not human' doesn't always mean 'evil', you know."

I decided not to say anything in response to that; my responses were limited to the fact that the Cullens had _been _human at one point, and otherwise anything I had to say would just sound racist at best.

I wondered if Angel knew that he'd turned some preconceptions I'd been forming on their heads before I'd even realised that I was developing them in the first place; I _had _been assuming that the Cullens- and now Angel- were only able to be good because they'd been human before they became vampires, until Angel revealed that he'd worked with a demon...

"Actually... as long as we're talking about your team, I had... well, there's something I wanted to ask you," I said, looking curiously at Angel as I cautiously tested the waters; what I was about to discuss wasn't exactly something that Angel might feel entirely comfortable telling to someone he'd only just met, but I was also fairly sure that he'd be anticipating such a question if Alice had told him enough information about me. "Was the... vampire thing... ever an issue with them?"

"Well, I did sometimes resent not being able to help out when a crisis meant that we had to deal with demons in the daytime-" Angel began with a slight smile.

"I meant... when you were... dating?" I said, suddenly feeling incredibly awkward as I finished my sentence even before I took in the pained look on Angel's face, the vampire suddenly lost in obviously painful memories inspired by my question.

"Yes... and no," Angel replied after a few moments of silence, staring intensely back at me as he considered the question I had just asked. "I mean, aside from a few... dalliances... over the years- I was a guy wandering around America for almost a century; I had some periods where I preferred to be on my own, but I had a few one-night stands during that time as well-, I've only really had three genuine relationships since I regained my soul."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, my last relationship was with a werewolf- there's no major vampire-werewolf conflict between our species, so we got along fine-, but she was more of a casual relationship than a serious commitment; we liked each other, but we weren't together long enough for it to become serious, and she doesn't really belong in the more... violent... parts of my world," Angel explained. "The relationship before that was more of a potential relationship- other factors kept on preventing us from actually _dating_, and then she... something attacked her as part of a plan to gain access to our world and she died in a coma-, but we were always close friends, and she fully understood what I was and had been and accepted it."

"And... the first one?" I asked.

"Buffy Summers," Angel said, smiling warmly at the memory. "She was the Slayer."

"The what?" I asked, confused at this new title.

"The vampire slayer," Angel clarified. "A girl, chosen by the higher powers, to be endowed with the strength and speed to battle my breed of vampire; Buffy was the latest Slayer in the modern world, and, about a decade ago, when she was 'activated' as a Slayer, I was recommended to act as an... advisor, for lack of a better term... to her as she learned the ropes. We ended up falling in love- the only other person who really understood what our lives were like, you know-, but..."

He sighed, the pain in his eyes obvious even as his expression as a whole maintained a neutrality that would have amazed and impressed any of the Cullens. "I decided that she deserved more than what I could give her- particularly with this whole... _thing _about my curse that we won't get into right now-, and... we broke it off."

"Because of a problem with your curse?" I asked, wanting to ensure that I understood what he was saying. "Not because you were a vampire?"

"The vampire thing was a part of it- there were things I'd never be able to give her as a vampire that she could have with a human- but the curse... yeah, that played its part in everything," Angel confirmed, nodding at me. "Would it have made a difference if the curse hadn't been a factor? I don't know, but the facts were what they were; we couldn't change the past so there's no point dwelling on it."

"But... you gave the relationship a chance," I said at last, still confused about where I was going with this conversation even as I was resolved to continue it. "Even with the problems... you _tried_, right?"

"We did what we could, but, when you get down to it, relationships are... relationships," he said at last, shrugging in a manner that was obvious meant to give the impression that he was more dismissive of that topic than he really was. "There are always going to be some areas that you're going to have to compromise on in even the most normal relationship, and there are always going to be some areas where you and your partner will just have to agree to disagree on the final result; relationships are about finding a balance between your differences and your similarities, as well as finding that connection with another being that nobody else can offer them. I'm not going to deny that I made a few decisions for Buffy that, looking back, I probably shouldn't have, but any decision made was made because I listened to arguments from various relevant parties and made a choice to be honest with her; I never tried to make a decision without completely filling her in on why I was doing it."

I had no real idea what I could say in response to a statement like that- a sentiment that I had feeling far too often in the last few minutes-, so I decided to stay quiet.

I might not agree with Edward's reasons for not turning me, but he'd explained why he didn't want to do that and I had accepted it for the moment; we certainly hadn't reached _that _kind of point...

"But... you tried to share what you could, right?" I asked him, not entirely sure where I was going with this line of questioning even as I resolved to continue it. "I mean, you told her your reasons, you told her about your past..."

"It took a while to share some details with her- I didn't want to bring up the vampire thing too soon in case she judged me for it without learning about the curse-, but I shared them when she asked, yeah," he said, nodding in acknowledgement of my points. "I even gave her a few lessons in hand-to-hand to help her deal with some of the threats she'd face, and we kept in touch in case something came up that would need both of us working together on the problem- this thing involving a demon army, stuff like that-, she helped inspire me to connect with the rest of the human race after I'd spent so long running away from it..."

He shook his head, lost in the memory, before he looked at me. "The point is, what you're exploring with Edward isn't going to be easy, and it's going to be hard, and at some point one or both of you is going to want out of it... but, at the same time, if you're both committed to it, you've got a chance."

"We do?" I asked; after Edward's own initial doubts, it was nice to hear someone outside the Cullens confirm that what we shared had a shot.

"You do," Angel confirmed. "Edward might be older than you chronologically, but Alice mentioned that you were older than your calendar years and I can definitely see what she meant, to say nothing of you coping with this whole situation without any kind of supernatural background."

"I wouldn't say that..." I said, uncertain how to feel about the sudden compliment.

"You're sitting here talking with a vampire about fighting a demon army while dating another vampire without any prior experience of anything outside the normal world before a few months ago, during which time you were nearly attacked by a sadistic vampire tracker; I'd say you're coping pretty well," Angel said, smiling reassuringly at me.

"Thanks," I said, smiling back at him before another thought came to me. "Talking of coping... if you're a fighter... could you... maybe teach me?"

"How to fight?" Angel said, looking at me for a moment as I nodded in clarification. For a moment, Angel looked thoughtfully at me, his eyes flicking over me in a manner that could best be described as evaluating, until he smiled.

"Why not?" he said with a smile, until his expression became more pointed. "Just to be clear, anything I teach you wouldn't allow you to go up against the Cullens' type of vampire, right?"

"I know," I said, nodding in understanding. "But... if you can spare the time, I'd just... I want to know that I'm not _completely _dependent on what they can do for me."

A sudden beeping from Angel's pocket interrupted his response, but when he pulled out a cellphone and looked at it, the smile on his face reassured me that it wasn't bad news.

"Alice," he said by explanation as he noticed my curious stare. "Just letting me know that she's got it all under control and nobody will be back for a day or two- she's suggested a few more distant locations with more interesting potential prey-, so we've got enough time to cover some of the basic essentials before anyone else gets here."

"Such as?" I asked, looking at him with a curious smile.

"Well," Angel replied, standing up and tossing his coat over a nearby chair as he looked at me, now dressed in a more casual shirt, "first things first, let's cover your stance..."

This decision had been surprisingly impulsive, but I was already looking forward to what Angel had to teach me; after so long getting only a peripheral look at what the Cullens were capable of as vampires, it was refreshing to have the chance to actually learn from a vampire about some of the details of vampire society- and the rest of the world they lived in and that I was looking to join- that I had yet to learn from Edward or the other Cullens...

* * *

AN 2: Well, that's that from this world for the moment; I'll maybe come back to this particular series if anything else occurs to me, but for the moment I'm happy with what I have so far.


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